German official: Yeah, don’t expect fracking in Germany any time soon

posted at 6:41 pm on February 11, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

Germany, which often prides itself on being a world leader in promoting (i.e., subsidizing) renewable energies and ‘sustainability,’ has been debating over whether or not they should open up their underground shale oil-and-gas reserves for hydraulic fracturing — with the necessarily accompanying ‘enlightened’-greenie protestations, of course. It’s not that Germany doesn’t use gas — they do, and they only produce 14 percent of the gas they use — but they’re averse to the idea of allowing the industry to more fully pursue their own domestic supplies if it should mean there’s any chance of the much-vaunted horrors of groundwater contamination. The German government is considering rules that would strictly regulate but ultimately allow the drilling practice that has led to boomtowns popping up across the United States, but the country’s environmental minister warned today that nobody should get too excited:

Germany’s environment minister says he doesn’t expect the extraction of natural gas by “fracking” will start any time soon in Europe’s biggest economy. …

Environment Minister Peter Altmaier told Deutschlandfunk radio Monday that Germany’s government is working to ensure the practice is subject to limits and he wouldn’t advise anyone to seek drilling licenses soon.

Altmaier said he “can’t see fracking being used anywhere in Germany in the foreseeable future.”

Why, why, why are so many people in these supposedly enlightened and eco-friendly nations so singlemindedly determined to shun the single best, mass-producible hope for substantively reducing carbon emissions in the near future? Keep pouring your money into the stubbornly-uncompetitive renewable ventures of your political fancy if you must, but why keep cutting your nose off to spite your face when you’re looking straight at a profitable and environmentally beneficial solution?

Further still, there are geopolitical implications to this decision — Germany could help Europe to lessen their dependence on Russia for fuel and erode their influence in the region, all the while boosting their own revenue streams. What’s not to like, exactly?

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Why, why, why are so many people in these supposedly enlightened and eco-friendly nations so singlemindedly determined to shun the single best, mass-producible hope for substantively reducing carbon emissions in the near future?

Centuries of precedent in singlemindedly doing the stupid thing over the thing that makes sense. European cultural fault lines are built on this stupidity. Western (Catholic) church v. Eastern Orthodox. Catholic nations v. Protestant ones. And nobody likes the Serbs.

Why, why, why are so many people in these supposedly enlightened and eco-friendly nations so singlemindedly determined to shun the single best, mass-producible hope for substantively reducing carbon emissions in the near future?

Easy question to answer. Environmentalism at some point stopped being about logic, like preventing people from dumping battery acid into rivers, and became a religion. It is about faith not logic. You either believe in mother goddess earth or you do not. Of course politicians now have jumped in making things much worse. The worst excesses of the Christianity, like witch hunts, normally were more orchestrated by the local political leaders than anyone else. Whenever politicians get involved in religion (witches) and science (eugenics) it normally ends badly for all involved.

Why, why, why are so many people in these supposedly enlightened and eco-friendly nations so singlemindedly determined to shun the single best, mass-producible hope for substantively reducing carbon emissions in the near future?

Because governments don’t own the rights, private industry does. And there’s still some opposition to big government by those individuals who make -and can donate a lot of money from the private sector.

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Ummm, the distortion by the rest of “enlightened Europe” about the problems of fracking and the possible attempt to make Deutschland the target of vicious criticism because of their superior economy?
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I’m just guessing but I think the rest of Europe has a habit of blaming Germany for everything since 1945.

Not surprised in the least that fracking will not happen in Deutschland. I know that they intend to have all their nuclear power plants shut down sooner rather than later (I think by 2025).

Germans are big time “Save the Planet” types. My wife is German and she didn’t just drink the Kool Aid, she takes the stuff intravenously. It’s maddening to argue with her. She swallowed the global warming hype hook, line, and sinker.

Once the Germans decide on a course of action, they will follow that path come hell or high water. For some reason, the term “pigheaded” comes to my mind. Believe it or not, more than one German has told me they consider us, the “Amis,” to be guilty of that very flaw. Pretty funny.

Anyway, examples such as the Reformation, the World Wars, insurance coverage for everything, and overly organized beer festivals are germane.

Don’t try to cross a street in Germany against the light. You will be dressed down. “Mein Herr, fuer die Kinder!”

One time, I stopped at a stop light and by mistake crossed slightly over the stop line. A young woman crossing the street stopped in front of my car, pointed at my offending bumper and glared at me. I laughed all the way to work.

She was a wonderful girl who spoke glowingly of me decades after I got free. Er, I mean…the divorce.

Then she married..drumroll….someone of FRENCH descent. I don’t make this stuff up! Ohhhh…that worked out REAL well!

You sure get it. The enviro thing is a natural (excuse the pun) and neatly (pun) plays to a love of authoritarianism, anal compulsions and a general epidemic of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) in the population.

But God bless their little (tiny) hearts.

If they want to keep sending a fortune east for gas and oil, so be it.

I actually met another one….I am trying to keep it from being a disaster for us both.

If you watch the documentary FrackNation, they say that Russia is in the lead for propagandizing against fracking in Europe–for obvious reasons. You might think that Germans, the ultimate in science nations, would be more observant of this type of ruse.